Justice and Fairness - Lecture notes 1 PDF

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M5- Lesson 1: Justice and Fairness W hat is Fairness? It refers to the level of even-handedness in dispensing justice whereby claims are recognized in order of their legal and contractual priority. It has been used with regard to an ability to judge without reference to one’s feelings or interests.W...

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M5- Lesson 1: Justice and Fairness What is Fairness? It refers to the level of even-handedness in dispensing justice whereby claims are recognized in order of their legal and contractual priority. It has been used with regard to an ability to judge without reference to one’s feelings or interests.

What is Justice?

It is giving each person what he/she deserves; or giving what is due. The term justice often means the whole array of virtues: full and complete moral goodness (cf. Mt 5:6, 20).

FAIRNESS • It refers to the level of even-handedness in dispensing justice whereby claims are recognized in order of their legal and contractual priority. • It has been used with regard to an ability to judge without reference to one’s feelings or interests. THE CONCEPT OF JUSTICE • It is a theory (philosophical and legal) by which fairness is administered. • Plato: justice is a command from God. •

John Locke: Justice is derived from the natural law.

• Social Contract theorists: It is about the mutual agreement of everyone concerned. • John Stuart Mill: It is about something that has the best consequences (maximity of happiness) •

Egalitarians: Justice exists only in the context of equality.

•

John Rawls: (Distributive) Justice is a form of fairness.

PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE

•

It is giving each person what he/she deserves; or giving what is due.

• The term justice often means the whole array of virtues: full and complete moral goodness (cf. Mt 5:6, 20). •

The perpetual and constant will to render to each one his right (cf.

ST, II-II, q. 58, a. 1; CCC, 1807) •

Principles of Justice

• According to Aristotle, “equals should be treated equals and unequals unequally.”

PROPERTIES OF JUSTICE The three essential properties of justice: 1. Justice always refers to another person. Strictly speaking, there are no obligations of justice toward oneself. 2. The object of justice is not a free gift, but something that is strictly due. 3. Justice does not demand an approximate compensation, but only what is exactly due, neither more nor less.

• Legal, general, or social justice is directly and primarily aimed at the common good

•

Legal Justice - duties of the individual toward the community

(ex. Taxes, cooperation in public affairs) •

Particular justice is directed to the private good

• Distributive Justice – duties of the community toward the individual • that inclines the ruler of a community to equitably distribute burdens and honors among its members according to their capacities and merits. • Commutative Justice – duties of an individual toward other individuals (cf. CCC, 2236, 2411.) •

private person’s stable determination to give another

private person what is strictly his due • Vindictive or Penal Justice - which inclines the ruler of a community to punish crime with the right penalties.

COMPENSATORY JUSTICE • refers to the extent to which people are fairly compensated for their injuries by those who have injured them; just compensation is proportional to the loss inflicted on a person. • concerns the fairness when restoring to a person what the person lost when he or she was wronged by someone else. CONDITIONS FOR OBLIGATION TO COMPENSATE INJURED PARTY 1.The action inflicted was wrong and negligent. 2.The action was the real cause of the injury 3.The act was voluntarily inflicted.

PROCEDURAL OR RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE

• Issues of procedural justice concern the fairness of how information is gathered or how a decision is made (fairness in the imposition of punishment and penalties); also known as Retributive Justice. • The punishment should be consistent and proportionate to the wrong act. If the purpose of a punishment is to deter others from committing the same wrong or to prevent the wrongdoer from repeating the same wrong, then punishment should not be greater than what is consistently necessary to achieve these aims. DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE • Refers to the extent to which society's institutions ensure that benefits and burdens are distributed among society's members in ways that are fair and just. • When the institutions of a society distribute benefits or burdens in unjust ways, there is a strong presumption that those institutions should be changed. • Issues of distributive justice concern the fairness of the distribution of something among several people or groups....